We’re happy to share that the zine publication of Queer Autonomous Zone Along the Pink Line (QAZ), will be presented this Sunday (15.00-16.30) at Titanik Gallery during the XS Festival, as part of the artist talk with Once We Were Islands. Onur Tayranoğlu from QAZ, will present the publication.
The zine brings together five queer manifestos, each written for QAZ by a different resident of this conceptual site in their mother tongue: Karelian, Kurdish, Ladino, Romanes, and Syriac. Together, they amplify queer voices that move across borders along the “Pink Line.”
Editions with English, Turkish, and Finnish translations will be available on the Circus Maximus website later this year. A small number of print copies will be distributed across Finland, and we’ll share a list of places where you can access them by the beginning of next year.
@onurtayranoglu@ehkaproduction@oncewewereislands@titanikgalleria
Queer-autonominen vyöhyke (Kuopio) 🏳️🌈🏳️⚧️ Queer Autonomous Zone (Kuopio) - First programme release!
Queer-autonominen vyöhyke (Kuopio) on taiteilija Onur Tayranoğlun ja ANTI-festivaalin uusi yhteistyöprojekti, josta syntyvä paikkasidonnainen teos on julkinen seremonia Kuopion torilla!
Seremonia muuttaa torin väliaikaisesti huolenpidon, selviytymisen ja solidaarisuuden tilaksi, joka kunnioittaa queer-elämää, -muistoja ja -vastarintaa, ja juhlistaa queer-autonomista vyöhykettä Kuopiossa. Syyskuun 2026 tapahtuma on tarkoitettu queereille ja heidän ystävilleen.
🩷 Kutsumme nyt kaikki Kuopion queerit mukaan projektin tutkimus- ja toteutusvaiheisiin!
👉 Kuopiolainen tai joskus täällä asunut queer-ihminen, tervetuloa vastaamaan kyselyyn 30.4.2026 mennessä! 🔗 Linkki kyselyyn biossa!
👉 Haluatko mukaan tapahtuman toteutukseen? Jätä yhteystietosi kyselyn kautta tai ole meihin yhteydessä!
🏳️🌈🩷🏳️⚧️
Queer Autonomous Zone (Kuopio) is a new collaboration project by the artist @onurtayranoglu and the ANTI Festival. The project will produce a new site-specific performance, a public ceremony that will take place in September during the 2026 ANTI Festival!
QAZ is a ceremony that reclaims the format of national celebrations, such as independence days. But instead of honouring a nation or a state, this ceremony celebrates queer life, memory, and resistance!
The ceremony will temporarily transform the Kuopio Market Square into a space of care, survival, and solidarity through our queer bodies, stories, and collective presence. The event in September is open to queers and their friends.
🩷 We now invite all the queers of Kuopio to participate in the research and execution of the project!
👉 Queer people of Kuopio, also the ones who have lived here in the past, are welcome to answer the survey by 30th April! 🔗 Link to the survey in bio!
👉 Interested in taking part in the execution of the event? Please leave your contact details via the survey or be in touch with us!
Photo: Bed Time Stories from QAZ 2024. Photo: Efe Durmaz
#antifestival2026 #kuopio
Pink Bill / ŞEY
31 January - 30 March 2025, Finnish Museum of Photography / Helsinki. @valokuvamuseo
1-22 November 2024, Performistanbul / Istanbul. @performistanbul
Pink Bill (ŞEY) explores the concepts of performance and performativity in social, political and cultural contexts. Tayranoğlu deals with the experience of being diagnosed with a “disorder” and found “unfit” during the military roll call process from a performative perspective. The exhibition reconstructs Tayranoğlu’s experience of failing against the expectations of heteronormative institutions as a form of queer resistance and liberation.
The exhibition is produced with the curatorial consultancy of Performistanbul, and generous support of Kone Foundation. @performistanbul@koneensaatio
With deep gratitude for their invaluable support throughout the production and exhibition:
Fadime Tayranoğlu
Melisa Yağmur Saydı @me.lagro@melisaaaav
Efe Durmaz @efemi_ne
Kolya Kotov @kolyakotov
Zeynep Yılmaz @zeeynepyilmaz
Batuhan Keskiner @batuhankeskiner
Azra İşmen @darktitania
Simge Burhanoğlu @simgeburhanoglu
and Performistanbul team
Orlan Ohtonen @orlan_ohtonen
and Finnish Museum Of Photography team
İzel Karaca
Amanda Hunt
Thanks to Vihervimma Oy @vihervimmaoy for borrowing the sandbags for the installation.
Photo Credit: Virve Laustela
Rakkaat Queer-autonomisen vyöhykkeen asukkaat,
🌈 ennen kuin Queer-autonominen vyöhyke julistaa itsenäisyytensä Kuopiossa syyskuussa, kokoonnumme yhteen! ☀️
Monet teistä ovat kertoneet, kuinka vähän queer-ihmisille on tarjolla tiloja, joissa voi vain tavata toisiaan ilman rakenteita tai odotuksia. Tämä kokoontuminen on yritys avata juuri sellainen tila: epävirallinen ja osallistujien yhdessä ylläpitämä.
Kokoontumme, lepäämme, puhumme, ajelehdimme ja pysähdymme. Annamme vyöhykkeen alkaa muodostua.
EDIT: sää ei salli piknikin järjestämistä, siirrymme sisätiloihin!
👉 Ottakaa mukaan jotain, millä istua. Jotain syötävää tai juotavaa, jos haluatte. Tai vain itsenne ja ystävänne!
📍EDIT: Kreatorio (Kuninkaankatu 21, Kuopio)
🗓️ Tiistaina 12.5. klo 17.00 - 19.00 / Tuesday May 12th, 17.00 - 19.00
Dear residents of the Queer Autonomous Zone,
🌈 before the Queer Autonomous Zone declares its independence in Kuopio this September, we meet on the ground! ☀️
Many of you have stated how few spaces there are for queer people to simply meet, without structure or expectation. This gathering is an attempt to open such a space: informal and held collectively by those who arrive.
We will gather, rest, speak, drift, and remain. Letting the zone begin to form.
EDIT: the weather on the day doesn’t allow the picnic, we will move into an indoor space, Kreatorio (Kuninkaankatu 21)!
👉 Bring something to sit on.
Something to eat or drink, if you wish.
Or just yourself and friends!
Image by Onur Tayranoǧlu
#qazkuopio #antifestival #anti25 #kuopio #queerkuopio
Onur Tayranoğlu at The Other Side Festival– November 16th, 2024. -- Onur Tayranoğlu is a transdisciplinary performance artist based in Helsinki. They approach various mediums such as text, video, digital media and installation through performance and theory based research processes. By often situating their practice in the gray areas between life and live art, Onur deals with the vague concept of performativity beyond art contexts; within the flow of social, political and cultural realities. Their artistic practice is informed and inspired by intersectional experiences, practices, histories and theories of queerness. Onur has graduated from Live Art and Performance Studies MA programme in Uniarts Helsinki and holds a BA from Arts, Media and Society from Leiden University (NL) with a minor in Game Studies and Cultural Analysis. Their works have been featured in several curated exhibitions, programs and festivals in Turkey, the Netherlands and Finland. Some notable showcases include Platform (FI, 2023), Circus Maximus (FI, 2023), Pixelache Festival (FI, 2023) MUU Contemporary Art Center (FI,2023) Forum Box (FI, 2023), Grey Space in the Middle (NL, 2023), MadHouse Helsinki (FI, 2022), Artsi Museum Vantaa (2021 FI), IKSV altkat Istanbul Foundation For Arts and Culture (TR, 2020). -- Photo credit: @negin_foto * Photo no. 4, 6 & 10 by Aman Askarizad
The Rehearsal / Prova
2024
HD-Video (36 min), 29 pcs. 50 x 70 cm sandbags covered with pink burlap fabric.
The Rehearsal is a video performance that Tayranoğlu created with their mother, Fadime, just before the hospital examination required in the military roll-call process. The installation exposes their shared vulnerability and also a profound expression of solidarity. Through roles such as mother and child, doctor and patient, soldier and state, they reveal not the success in embodying these roles, but the significance of their failure.
The work also highlights how Tayranoğlu and their mother navigate personal, social, and political taboos through the recurring use of the filler word “şey,” which also gives the exhibition its Turkish title. Şey, in Turkish, is often used in moments of hesitation, self-censorship, or uncertainty; şey becomes a linguistic tool for exploring these complex issues as well as illustrating how one can relate to the unknown and undefinable.
Performance : Onur Tayranoğlu, Fadime Tayranoğlu
Color Editing : Batuhan Keskiner @batuhankeskiner
Subtitle : Efe Durmaz @efemi_ne
Technical Advisor : Melisa Yağmur Saydı @melisaaaav@me.lagro
The Rehearsal is produced with the curatorial consultancy of Performistanbul, and generous support of Kone Foundation. @performistanbul@koneensaatio
Thanks to Vihervimma Oy @vihervimmaoy for borrowing the sandbags for the installation.
Photo credit: Virve Laustela
📌Sanatçı Konuşması | Onur Tayranoğlu - “ŞEY”
YARIN (6.11.2024, Çarşamba)
Saat: 18:00
Konuşma dili Türkçe’dir.
Performans sanatçısı Onur Tayranoğlu’nun @onurtayranoglu askerlik için elverişsiz bulunduğu askerlik yoklama sürecinin bireysel, sanatsal ve sosyal potansiyelini araştırdığı Performistanbul küratoryel danışmanlığı ve ev sahipliğinde gerçekleşen “ŞEY” başlıklı sergisi kapsamında gerçekleştireceği konuşmasına bekliyoruz. ✨
-
Sergi ziyaret günleri;
Salı - Cumartesi, 14:00 - 19:00
Onur Tayranoğlu’nun “ŞEY” sergisi, performans ve performativite kavramlarını sosyal, politik ve kültürel bağlamlar üzerinden araştırıyor. Tayranoğlu, askeri yoklama sürecinde kendisine konulan “bozukluk” tanısı ve “elverişsiz” bulunma deneyimini performatif bir perspektiften ele alıyor. Yaşadığı bu deneyim, ona bir oyun alanı yaratma fırsatı sunarken, oyunun kurallarına ne kadar uyduğundan çok, ne kadar çuvalladığını görünür kılıyor.
Bahsedilen “çuvallama performansının” özgürleştirici potansiyelini bireysel, ailevi ve toplumsal değerler içinden irdeleyen bir video-performans çalışması “Prova” ile “O Şimdi Şey” başlıklı yerleştirmelerin yer aldığı sergi, 1-22 Kasım 2024 tarihleri arasında ziyaret edilebilir.
Onur Tayranoğlu
ŞEY
📌Sergi | Exhibition: 1 - 22 Kasım | November
Salı - Cumartesi | Tuesday - Saturday 14:00 - 19:00
Onur Tayranoğlu’nun Performistanbul küratoryal danışmanlığı ve ev sahipliğinde gerçekleşen “ŞEY” sergisi, performans ve performativite kavramlarını sosyal, politik ve kültürel bağlamlar üzerinden araştırıyor. Tayranoğlu, askeri yoklama sürecinde kendisine konulan “bozukluk” tanısı ve “elverişsiz” bulunma deneyimini performatif bir perspektiften ele alıyor. Yaşadığı bu deneyim, ona bir oyun alanı yaratma fırsatı sunarken, oyunun kurallarına ne kadar uyduğundan çok, ne kadar çuvalladığını görünür kılıyor.
Bahsedilen “çuvallama performansının” özgürleştirici potansiyelini bireysel, ailevi ve toplumsal değerler içinden irdeleyen bir video-performans çalışması “Prova” ile “O Şimdi Şey” başlıklı yerleştirmelerin yer aldığı sergi, 1-22 Kasım 2024 tarihleri arasında ziyaret edilebilecek.
—
Onur Tayranoğlu’s exhibition “ŞEY” hosted by Performistanbul, explores the concepts of performance and performativity through social, political and cultural contexts. During their military roll-call process, Tayranoğlu deals with their experience of being diagnosed with a “disorder” and being found “unfit” from a performative perspective. While this experience offers them the opportunity to create a playground, it makes visible how much they have failed rather than how much they have followed the rules of the game.
The exhibition, that includes the video-performance work titled “Prova” and the installation titled “O Şimdi Şey” that examines the liberating potential of the aforementioned “performance of failure” through individual, familial and social values, may be visited between November 1-22, 2024.
@onurtayranoglu@koneensaatio
-------CANCELED-----DUE TO HEALTH PROBLEMS------
Queer Autonomous Zone Along the Pink-line is looking for its people!
Queer Autonomous Zone is a land yet to be imagined by its subjects, queer communities that are torn apart by nation-state borders and the Pink-line* drawn by their homonationalist rhetorics.
As Queer Autonomous Zone primarily aims to contribute to the efforts of queers in demolishing nation-state borders, it needs tools and tactics developed by the queers with experiences of crossing those borders.
In search of these tools and tactics as well as to meet & greet each other, Queer Autonomous Zone Inhabitants Committee invite the queers, primarily the ones with experiences and backgrounds of immigration in Finland to join the open workshop days during on 25th and 27th June, to create the first public appearance of Queer Autonomous Zone during the Pride Parade Helsinki on June 29.
25.06.2024 Tuesday
12 - 6pm
Mask making workshop with Kolya Kotov & Onur Tayranoğlu
27.06.2024 Thursday
12 - 6pm
Banner making workshop with Phan Nguyen & Onur Tayranoğlu
Further information regarding the workshops can be found on the registration form.
https://forms.gle/wGTdn8WxFFcnEMSn9
*** The workshops and the public intervention are organised as part of the artistic project “Queer Autonomous Zone Along the Pink-Line in-between Finland and Turkey” initiated by Onur Tayranoğlu and supported by @koneensaatio
16 Mart Cumartesi günü saat 14:00’te gerçekleşecek performansın ardından saat 15:00’te Onur Tayranoğlu ve Zeynep Yılmaz’ın söyleşisine davetlisiniz.
*Söyleşinin dili Türkçedir.
Onur Tayranoğlu Helsinki’de yaşayan disiplinlerarası bir performans sanatçısı. Leiden Üniversitesi’nin Arts, Media and Society lisans programından Game Studies and Cultural Analysis yan dalıyla mezun olmuştur. Uniarts Helsinki’de Live Art and Performance Studies yüksek lisansını bitirmiştir. Metin, video, dijital medya ve enstalasyon gibi farklı mecralara performans ve teori temelli araştırma süreçleriyle yaklaşan Onur, pratiğini çoğu zaman yaşam ile canlı sanat arasındaki gri alanlara konumlandırır.
Zeynep Yılmaz, dilin işitsel, mekansal ve zamansal koşullarına örülü metin ve şiirlerle çalışan yazar ve performans sanatçısı. Leiden Üniversitesi’nin Arts, Media and Society lisans programından Gender and Sexuality yan dalıyla mezun olmuştur. Oto-kurgu, performatif sözlü şiir, küratöryel sergi metinleri, ticari metin yazarlığı başta olmak üzere farklı biçimlerde yazarlığını icra etmektedir. Son bir buçuk senedir İstanbul’da yaşamaktadır.
Afiş tasarım: Can Yıldırım @ccan.yildirim
I am touching a screen, tapping on the keys to articulate my love. My fingertips feel the electricity running between us, it travels to my nipple through the cable that is plugged into the hole behind.
This is Plug'n'Play, a physical site where digital formulations of desire are performed. Basing itself on the understanding "plugging precedes play", a seductive sequence of installations negotiates layers of visibility and privacy.
Artistic component of my MA Thesis in Live Art and Performance Studies @uniartshelsinki
11 March - 26 March 2023
MUU Helsinki Contemporary Art Centre @muu_helsinki
Working group:
Anna Pietilä @anna.pietila
Jon Pettersson @pettersjon
Lempi Koponen @lempi44555
Supervisors: Julius Elo and Tero Nauha
Special thanks to
Kalle Rasinkangas @bambimagnet for technical mentoring,
Marja Zilcher and the technical team in Theatre Academy and Fine Arts Academy of Uniarts Helsinki,
Aalto Studios @aaltostudios
and their team for sharing their technologies and skills,
UrbanApa @urban_apa team for supporting the early process of the work with the mini-residency in Forum Box @forumbox ,
Zeynep yilmaz @zeeynepyilmaz for the curatorial/editorial support,
Artists within live art performance studies MA for witnessing the process,
All the cyber-sexual partners and digital intimate encounters we have had throughout the process.
First three photographs by Jyrkki Oksaharju, last five by Tuure Leppänen @tvvre
